A normal human heart beats between 60 to 100 times per minute. However, when a person gets excited or frightened or has an illness such as congenital heart disease, the heart may beat faster than 100 times per minute. A disruption in the normal heart rate or rhythm is known as arrhythmia.
Arrhythmias are caused by abnormal functioning of the electrical conduction of the heart. Normally, the chambers of the heart (atria and ventricles) work in a coordinated manner. The electrical conduction begins with an electrical impulse originating in the sinoatrial node. This impulse is then moved through the atria, stimulates them to contract, and then is moved to its final destination at the ventricles, where it stimulates them to contract also. Any problems along this conduction path may cause arrhythmias.
Certain types of arrhythmia are lethal and may cause severe damage to various organs in the body by initially decreasing the pumping of the heart. When the pumping of the heart is decreased by more than a few seconds, blood circulation is essentially stopped, and organ damage (such as brain damage) may occur within a few minutes.
Arrhythmias have been treated by the use of a pacemaker that applies shock therapy. A pacemaker is a medical device that delivers controlled electrical pulses to an electrode that is implanted adjacent to or in the heart. These controlled electrical pulses stimulate the heart so that it will contract and beat at a desired rate. The delivery of these controlled electrical pulses is often tailored to the individual patient.
A physician at times needs to reassess the therapy applied by the pacemaker. One technique is for the physician to obtain a printed listing of the therapy data from the pacemaker and reformulate the therapy. However, what has been frustrating for the physician is that the use of the listing of data to reformulate the therapy has been laborious, time-intensive, and error-prone.
Thus, what is needed are systems, devices, structures, and methods to ease the use of the therapy data by a physician.